LaHood lands windfall contribution

SAN ANTONIO — The rumors are true: A Corpus Christi lawyer is injecting nearly $700,000 into the race for Bexar County district attorney.

When I heard last month about the gargantuan donation, likely an unprecedented sum in a local race, I asked Nicholas “Nico” LaHood, the beneficiary, to confirm its accuracy. At the time, LaHood would only call the contribution from personal injury attorney Thomas J. Henry a “substantial amount” of money.

LaHood is challenging incumbent District Attorney Susan Reed in November.

“I know (Henry) is sponsoring and donating for a lot of our media buys,” LaHood said then. “He's made some purchases.”

2of 7Spurs' Tim Duncan, with his children Sydney (left) and Draven, speaks during Nicholas LaHood's kickoff campaign event for district attorney Saturday Jan. 18, 2014 at the St. Paul Community Center.Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News

3of 7Nicholas LaHood, left, who is running in the Democratic primary for the district attorney nomination, is greeted by Art Silva at San Antonio Professional Firefighters Banquet Hall on election night, Tuesday, March 4, 2014.Photo: San Antonio Express-News

4of 7Nicholas “Nico” LaHood went to bed after the election believing he'd won a primary race to become the Democratic nominee for DA.

5of 7

6of 7Nicholas LaHood, who is running for district attorney, (left) jokes with Spurs' Tony Parker before his kickoff campaign event Saturday Jan. 18, 2014 at the St. Paul Community Center.Photo: San Antonio Express-News

7of 7Nicholas LaHood, who is running for district attorney, (left) waits to speak as Spurs' Tim Duncan jokes with LaHood's daughter Maya, 5, Saturday Jan. 18, 2014 at the St. Paul Community Center.Photo: San Antonio Express-News

A campaign finance report released Monday revealed the extent of the media buys: four purchases made last month by Henry for “advertising”: one for $243,599, another for $39,847.50, a third for $32,400 and another for $377,966.

In the space of two weeks, Henry gave LaHood a total of $693,812.50.

Trish DeBerry, a local public-relations and campaign consultant, called the figure unprecedented — and troubling.

“I have never seen that kind of money come in from one donor in any campaign I've been involved with,” she said. “Nobody gives that kind of money unless there's something in it for them in a political campaign.... It really is sort of unbelievable to think there isn't an issue associated with this.”

So, what's in it for Henry?

That remains an intriguing question.

Henry hasn't returned a phone call.

He did buy a pricey, full-page advertisement in the San Antonio Express-News that explains, in nearly 1,000 words, the purely altruistic reasons he's supporting LaHood.

Boiled down, the piece blames Reed for the rate of child abuse in Bexar County, an attack that LaHood has echoed. Henry cites statistics from ChildSafe, a local nonprofit, that one in four girls and one in six boys in Bexar County will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday.

“Our community is in crisis,” Henry wrote. “There are extremely high rates of sexual crimes against children and the District Attorney's office has failed to effectively deal with the problem for over 16 years. The numbers of children abused is horrifying!”

He added, “The handing out of probation by the District Attorney's office to admitted child sexual predators is repulsive.”

Kim Abernethy, president and CEO of ChildSafe, affirmed Monday that Bexar County is in “crisis,” but she said the reason for the rate of child abuse is “a lot more complicated” than lackluster prosecutions.

“We do know that teen pregnancy has a lot of correlation with child abuse,” she said. “Drug abuse and alcohol has a high correlation. So we have some components (in Bexar County) that have high correlation.”

“Nico talks a big game on going after child predators,” Morgan said, “but when a case for aggravated sex assault of a child came before Nico as a special prosecutor, he busted it down to indecency with a minor and offered 10 years' deferred adjudication.”

LaHood discounted that anecdote as “cherry-picking” by Reed.

As for the appearance of political payola created by a $693,000 contribution?

“Mr. Henry is not giving to a campaign,” LaHood told me. “He's giving to a cause.”

In fact, Henry is giving to a campaign. Now he needs to start taking calls from media to explain himself in person.